For any business looking to grow, a steady stream of new leads isn’t just nice to have — it’s essential.
But in B2B, how to generate leads effectively looks quite different from consumer marketing. This article explores what lead generation marketing means in a B2B context, and how you can effectively leverage your key marketing channels to bring in prospects that actually convert.
What is lead generation marketing and what difference can it make?
So, what is lead generation? At its simplest, it’s the process of attracting and capturing interest from potential customers — turning visitors into prospects, and prospects into buyers.
Lead generation, beyond simply winning new business, ensures a healthy pipeline of leads that protects you from becoming too dependent on your existing client base. It’s what allows a business to expand, evolve and weather the inevitable ups and downs of its market.
But in B2B, both the stakes and the approach are different. Often quality matters far more than quantity. Many B2B businesses rely on a handful of major clients each year, particularly when their services are complex or high value. That means every lead counts, and nurturing a positive relationship from the very first interaction is crucial.
The buying process itself is more involved too. You’re not convincing one person to make an impulse purchase. You’re guiding multiple stakeholders through a considered decision. This shapes how you need to approach B2B lead generation. From the strategies you leverage, to the channels you use, and even the messaging of your lead generation tools.
Leveraging inbound and outbound lead generation through your website
When thinking about lead generation strategies, it helps to understand the distinction between inbound and outbound marketing.
Outbound is about reaching out — putting your message in front of new audiences through advertising, cold outreach and paid campaigns. Inbound is about drawing people in — creating content and experiences that make prospects come to you. For example, a blog post on your website may be found by potential customers searching relevant topics, while a paid ad will appear outside your website and is deliberately targeting them.
Your website can do both. Inbound lead generation on your website might involve offering something of genuine value in exchange for contact details: a downloadable guide, a webinar signup or a newsletter subscription. These lead generation forms give you a first step with your prospect and useful information for your sales team to leverage. For instance, if someone downloads a guide on a specific service, then you already know what they’re interested in.
Then there’s options such as SEO lead generation. Rigorous SEO ensures you’re visible organically, thus ensuring your site ranks well in any search results online and you aren’t displaced by your competitors. While paid search ads, an outbound form of lead generation, can build on and amplify this work further. Putting you in front of potential customers who are actively looking for the services or products that you offer.
By using inbound and outbound marketing, you have a way to both attract new leads to your site and then convert them once they arrive.
B2B lead generation with the targeting capabilities of social media
Social media has become an increasingly powerful channel for B2B marketing, particularly with platforms such as LinkedIn that focus on professional connections.
LinkedIn lead generation is unique in that it allows you to target people by not only the industry they work in, but also their position within their company. Enabling you to focus on the individuals who are most likely to have the decision-making power to choose whether to engage your services.
Moreover, there’s plenty of flexibility in how you can use the platform. Paid campaigns can drive traffic to your site or capture leads directly. Organic content — posts, articles, newsletters — builds visibility and credibility over time. And then there’s direct engagement: commenting on posts, responding to comments on your own content, and reaching out via direct messages.
The key with any of this is to approach people with something of real value, not just a sales pitch. If you come across as pushy or spammy, you risk alienating the very audience you’re trying to reach. However, if done correctly, and this is where it can be worthwhile to work with experts on the platform, LinkedIn is an excellent place to nurture and convert valuable high-quality leads.
Of course, depending on your audience, other platforms may also be equally valuable. It’s always worth researching where your ideal customers spend their time and being creative in how you show up there.
Email marketing and the 5-minute rule for leads
There’s a well-known principle in lead generation marketing called the 5-minute rule. Research from MIT and other bodies shows that leads contacted within 5 minutes of expressing interest are 21 times more likely to qualify that those who wait 30 minutes.
Even though B2B prospects will have a much longer sales process, this rule still holds true for that initial contact that turns a potential prospect into a warm lead. The challenge of course is that your sales team can’t always respond that quickly — but an automated email can.
This is where email comes into its own. Automated campaigns can capture a lead’s attention the moment they engage. Moreover, you can tailor these sequences based on the actions they’ve taken or the information they’ve provided. Ensuring your follow-up email is relevant and interesting to your new contact and so greatly improving your chances of success. It’s a way of nurturing prospects further along your sales funnel without relying on manual follow-up.
As a B2B lead generation agency, we offer services and tools specifically designed for this: gathering relevant prospects, assessing their potential value, and building customer personas based on key information. This allows for an automated approach where the right message reaches the right person at the right time — with content customised to each prospect’s unique profile. The results speak for themselves: open rates above 40% and click-through rates exceeding 10%, outperforming most warm campaigns on subscribed lists.
In summary, email is a fantastic way to engage new leads with tailored content and keep them warm throughout an involved sales process.
Growing your business with effective B2B lead generation strategies
B2B lead generation requires a different mindset from consumer marketing. The buying process is longer, the relationships more involved, and the need for relevance and value even greater. But by leveraging your marketing channels to better target your ideal customers and capture their interest at crucial moments, you can build a pipeline that drives real long-term growth.
Working with a specialist B2B lead generation agency can also make a significant difference here, bringing expertise in the methods and channels that work best for complex sales cycles. At Marcom, our experts create strategies which are tailored to your unique customer base, developing creative and effective ways to generate high-quality leads.
Interested? Book a free marketing session to discuss lead generation for your business here.
